Bones Bearings: The best selling skateboard bearings!

I’m sure my experience working in a skateshop is similar to most others worldwide, when a customer comes in asking for a set of skateboard bearings, it’s highly likely they just say “Can I have a set of Bones Reds please?”. Bones bearings are undoubtedly the best selling skateboard bearing brand, so let’s have a little look into why. 

With roots tied to the Bones Brigade and Powell Peralta legacies, Bones Bearings have been a staple in any skateboard shop for like, forever, with the company first making bearings all the way back in 1981 specifically. Bones bearings are designed specifically for skateboarding, unlike some of its competitors, who’ve repurposed industrial bearings designed for vehicles elsewhere (this doesn’t mean they’re poor quality bearings).

Interestingly, Bones don’t play into the whole bearing abec rating debate, which is a popular consumer question we hear from customers out to buy a fresh set of bearings, with Powell’s stance being that abec rating doesn’t actually apply to bearings of the size needed for skateboarding, something which is factually correct. The way that Bones operate is focusing on durability, tolerance and impact resistance, needs specifically tailored for skating. 

Bones Bearings’ most popular product by far is Bones Reds, the best selling bearing in skateboarding and very infamous worldwide, with Bones Reds being the first name on the lips of a great deal of skaters when talking about bearings, and an almost rite of passage product for beginner skaters everywhere. For around the £20 mark, they’re relatively reasonably priced, helping the popularity, but the name is such a big one, that alone would probably keep them moving regardless of price. 

Bones also offer a host of more premium options for whatever budget you’re working with. Super reds and Big balls are slightly more expensive than the standard Reds, with Super Reds just being a slightly upgraded version of the original, with higher grade steel and a lighter feel, and Big Balls are designed with larger balls, with 6 inside instead of 7, designed for higher speeds and better durability. 

Getting to the very upper echelons of bearing pricing and quality, Bones offer the 6 ball Swiss, standard Swiss, and Super Reds Ceramics. Like the big balls, the 6 ball swiss are a slightly larger 6 ball mechanic, with a higher performance ceiling to the Big Balls, offering higher speeds and longer lasting ride. Swiss bearings offer professional competition grade speed and durability, and are the Original Bones Swiss offering, normally lasting several times longer than the standard bearings you’ll see in a skateshop cabinet. Lastly, Reds Ceramics are the most expensive Bones Bearing we have at Native, and arguably the highest quality skateboard bearing on the market, with the balls weighing much less, they are considerably lighter offering increased acceleration and are easily faster than any of the other Bones Bearings we offer. The ceramic balls won’t rust, increasing life span, meaning these bearings are there for the long run once set up. 

Bones Bearings have been the best selling skateboard bearings for a long time, and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing down, even though there are more and more other offerings popping up in the bearing market these days. As mentioned earlier, your first set of Bones reds are seen as a right of passage for beginners especially, and we get a lot of new skaters in store very excited by a packet of Bones Reds.